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Late-Glacial to Holocene Changes in Winds, Upwelling, and Seasonal Production of the Northern California Current System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Constance Sancetta
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York 10964
Michell Lyle
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York 10964
Linda Heusser
Affiliation:
Lamont-Doherty Geological Observatory, Palisades, New York 10964
Rainer Zahn
Affiliation:
GEOMAR, Wischhofstrasse 1-3, Gebäude 4, D-2300 Kiel 14, Germany
J.Platt Bradbury
Affiliation:
U.S. Geological Survey MS 919, Box 25046, Federal Center, Denver, Colorado 80225

Abstract

A core 120 km off the coast of southern Oregon was examined for changes in lithology, diatoms, and pollen over the past 30,000 yr. Primary production during the late Pleistocene was about half that of the Holocene. Evidence from diatoms and pollen indicates that summer upwelling was much weaker, implying an absence of strong northerly winds. Early Pliocene diatoms found throughout the late Pleistocene section were probably derived from diatomites east of the Cascades and provide evidence for strong easterly winds over a dry continental interior. The findings verify predictions of a climate model based on glacial maximum conditions. There is no compelling evidence for a climatic reversal corresponding to the European Younger Dryas chron. During the early Holocene (9000−7000 yr B.P.) there may have been years when winds were insufficiently strong to support upwelling, so that warm stratified waters lay closer to the coast.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
University of Washington

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